The New Year is here, and it is now upon us – treat it like one more year, resolve to take this THE year or worse, 2013 is a bad year.

Which state of mind are you in?

For those of you who think 2013 is going to be a bad year, as 13 is unlucky and all, just get to China. Number 13 is known to be lucky amongst the Chinese people.( the reason for the same is “This sounds like “one life, one lifetime” in both Mandarin and Cantonese, and is often used romantically, akin to “for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part” in English”). Source : Wiki

All these years, I always wondered the relevance of the New Year eve. It is just a date change. And just because the year is slated to have 365 days, it occurs once in 365 days. That is all. It is just a mathematical convenience. This thought helped me avoid wait till 31st December to make a resolve. I decide to go to the gym, I go. I don’t wait for the year to change. Simple.

We treat the 31st December as one reason to party (and rightly so), and a time we need to make a resolution. Almost like it is the in thing to do and we need to make a resolution. Why is it so important to wait for the year to change?

My friend in cigarette business tells me that the sales of cigarettes goes down every January, and this is obviously due to the many lakhs who decide that 1st January is the day to kick the butt. He also told me that the sales are back to normal by the last weeks of January and remains normal then onwards. They also manage to put up a meager 2% growth on yoy basis.

The interesting fact mentioned by my friend is, that the cigarette sales goes up every year in December. Now there are many factors that could lead to this – 31 days in the month, festive time, everyone is vacationing and partying, etc. I personally believe the real reason is that everyone is on a smoking pree, thinking that they would quit any which ways on 1st January. The balance is made. The slump in smoking the first 15 days of the year is more than made up for in the last 15 days of the year.

I have taken the example of cigarette smoking as it is the most common resolution taken by people all over the world. The same applies to any other resolution. You decide to do something, or to quit something basis a date change, it obviously would not stand the test of time as it does not come from the heart.

So what exactly is the importance of New Year’s Eve, other than being one long party evening and a holiday? For me, the New Year’s Eve is the right time for reflection. It is the time for one to reflect where they were last year, and where they hope to go in the New Year. Career, personal life, financial life, carnal life.. er! You get the drift right!

Chill, I think the resolution part is better and more interesting. I have made up my long list of resolutions for the year – and well, have already given up on most of them. Four days is good enough you see!